Practical Components in Teacher Training Programmes in Slovenia (Yugoslavia)

For the present development of teacher training system in Slovenia (Yugoslavia) two trends are characteristic: the prolongation of studies for elementary school teachers (grades 1‐8) from two to four years and an institutional shift of responsibility for subject teacher training from ‘mono‐technical’ (pedagogical academies) to ‘polytechnical’ institutions (different faculties or departments of the universities).

These trends are having important implications for the scope of practical training and its relationship to other parts of the studies. Traditional forms of practical training that had developed at pedagogical academies are being discontinued but the new ones are not yet firmly established.

The existing forms of practical training of student teachers are briefly described (exercises in general professional courses, exercises in classroom observation, teaching attempts and block practice). In addition, the role of teachers of special didactics and the role of practice teachers is analysed.

The pragmatic character of practical training has to be overcome on the basis of systematic attempts to confront students’ subjective theories on teaching and learning, based on experience, with scientific theories throughout the process of their training.

An important prerequisite for the necessary integration of different components of study and especially of theory and practice is cooperation between university teachers of academic, general professional subjects and special didactics. How do we achieve such a cooperation and overcome the negative attitude of teachers of academic subjects toward professional and practical training of students? This remains one of the open problems in the reform of teacher training in Slovenia.     

School and campus interaction: a Canadian experiment in teacher preparation

Milburn, D. “School and campus interaction: a Canadian experiment in teacher preparation,” Revue ATEE Journal 3 (1980) 147‐155.

Information on the School Campus Interaction Programme (SCIP); an experiment in teacher education at the Faculty of Education of the University of British Columbia, Canada. SCIP aimed at closer interaction between the practice school and the university faculty and its students. This was achieved by giving students continuous school experience throughout the year, whereas students were always accompanied by and working with their teachers. The continual presence of the didactics professors in the practice school proved to be especially beneficial for the students as well as the schools. All participants in the programme reacted very positively to the programme.

The time spent in the practice school was increased largely at the expense of the available time for didactics, which was a matter of concern for the faculty members. However, this decrease in time for courses in didactics was found to be beneficial not only for the whole training course, but for those courses as well.     

On defining distance education

Four generally accepted definitions of distance education are analysed and from them six components of a comprehensive definition are chosen. The forms of education that are considered to fall within the concept of distance education as outlined are considered from the point of view of choice of medium, institutional type and didactic model. Various forms of education that bear some similarities to distance education but are not to be identified with it are described. The term ‘distance education’ is proposed as the most satisfactory solution to the problem of terminology.

The term ‘distance education’ covers the various forms of study at all levels which are not under the continuous, immediate supervision of tutors present with their students in lecture rooms or on the same premises, but which, nevertheless, benefit from the planning, guidance and tuition of a tutorial organisation.

(Holmberg,1977:9)

Distance education is education which either does not imply the physical presence of the teacher appointed to dispense it in the place where it is received or in which the teacher is present only on occasion or for selected tasks.

(Loi 71.556 du 12 juillet 1971)

Distance teaching/education (Fernunterricht) is a method of imparting knowledge, skills and attitudes which is rationalised by the application of division of labour and organisational principles as well as by the extensive use of technical media, especially for the purpose of reproducing high quality teaching material which makes it possible to instruct great numbers of students at the same time wherever they live. It is an industrialised form of teaching and learning.

(Peters, 1973:206)

Distance teaching may be defined as the family of instructional methods in which the teaching behaviours are executed apart from the learning behaviours, including those that in a contiguous situation would be performed in the learner's presence, so that communication between the teacher and the learner must be facilitated by print, electronic, mechanical or other devices.

(Moore, 1973:664)     

The classroom observation protocol for socioscientific issue-based instruction: development and implementation of a new research tool

Background: For the past decade, science educators have been exploring the use of Socio-scientific Issues (SSI) as contexts for science teaching and learning, and research indicates that doing so can support significant learning gains. However, research related to how teachers take up the practice of SSI-based instruction is far more limited, due in part to a lack of tools for use in this kind of research.

Purpose: The focus of this research is development and testing of a new classroom observation protocol specifically designed for SSI-based instructional contexts.

Design and methods: Development of this SSI-Observation Protocol (SSI-OP) took place in four distinct phases: review of existing protocols and SSI-based instruction frameworks, writing and revision of protocol items, initial testing of the draft protocol, and soliciting feedback from SSI experts.

Sample: Following the four stages of SSI-OP development, we progressed to a series of field tests. The field tests were conducted with three different samples. The first sample was an experienced (10 + years) high school biology teacher and one of her honors biology classes. The second sample consisted of seven Turkish Pre-service Science Teachers (PST) participating in a science methods course. The third sample included two Thai PST from a field experience course embedded within a teacher education program.

Results: The final version of the protocol addressed five dimensions of SSI-based instructional activities: focus of instruction, teaching moves, role of teacher, role of students, and classroom environment.

Conclusions: The SSI-OP could be used in a variety of ways for research including documentation of current practices, impacts of professional development and/or curricula on teaching practices, and changes in teaching over time. We offer the SSI-OP as a new tool with the potential to contribute to science teacher education and research that may advance the teaching and learning of science through SSI.     

Teacher Education in Denmark

The paper describes the national roots of Danish teacher education, its position as being regulated by parliamentary legislation, and lists the types of institutions giving teacher education for various school forms.

It concentrates on teacher education for the main school, Primary and lower Secondary, age range 6‐16, which is given in colleges of education, whose entrance qualifications are the same as those of universities.

It goes on to describe the legal basis and practical functioning of this type of teacher education, giving information about overall aims and objectives, and curricula in the concurrent Danish system. The democratic agents regulating the education on the local as well as national level are described. Subsequently, it describes the relationship between theory and practice, and after this Danish teacher education is placed in the European picture.

Finally, the paper describes aspects of Danish teacher education as seen from the writer's position as subject area manager for English.     

‘What Are We Talking About?’ Plural Education and Teacher Education

In this article some basic concepts in the field of education in a plural society are discussed and defined. A distinction is made between various forms of plural education, which is the generic concept for all educational reactions to the plurality of a society. This distinction is based on the target group, purpose and general orientation of these reactions. The ensuing discussion of the various forms of plural education results, among other things, in a critique of multi‐ and intercultural education and the proposal of a pluralist education. The third and last section deals with some perspectives for teacher education.

     

Teacher Education in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

Teacher education in Czechoslovakia is part of a unified national provision of education; this covers in‐service as well as pre‐service training. The basis is that of training at Higher education level followed by life‐long upgrading.

The Marxist‐Leninist view is that the quality of the teacher is central to the educational process. Consequently, the initial and in‐service training of the teacher are of paramount importance, and the Czechoslovak system aims at an integrated approach to the entire process. In this process, acquisition of ideological, as well as professional, maturity, is seen as essential. Equally, the teacher must master his chosen discipline (s) in the scientific sense.

Additionally, it is important that the teacher be able to participate actively in the community—in, for example, family education, health care and concern for the environment.

Against this background of goals, the author outlines the Czechoslovak institutional provision for initial training, conditions for enrolment and the process of obtaining a post, before providing an in‐depth examination of the country's provision of in‐service education. A final section emphasises the position of the teacher in society, and specifically in socialist society. The teacher is, quite simply, a key figure and teacher education has to be built around this fact.

Svatopluk S. Petrá?ek is Professor of Education and Director of the European Centre of the Charles University for Further Education of Teachers.     

Goal Aspects of Teacher Education

Despite the central role of teachers in any education system, teacher education is frequently the weakest of the links in the process of educational reform.

In examining this problem, the author focuses on the question of the goal aspects of teacher education. Examples from the Federal Republic identify some of the constraints affecting goal achievement; these include legalistic, traditionalist and socio‐economic constraints. The more open the society, the more visible are these difficulties.

The article then examines in depth five separate goal aspects of teacher training: the economic (income), social (status), formal‐legal (position), professional (everyday activity) and socio‐educational (system); these factors interrelate one to the other.

Some desiderata for the development of teacher education are identified. These include a view of the teacher as reformer, recognition of the realities of teacher employment, and also a realisation that the ‘school of tomorrow’ poses a challenge to ‘the school of today’.     

La formation des professeurs de langue et la linguistique appliquée

For over 20 years applied linguistics has especially been engaged in problems connected with foreign language acquisition and learning. It appears as an inter‐discipline of psychology, pedagogics, sociology and linguistics. Gradually it is finding itself a place among the subjects taught in the university, forming its own cadre, defining its field and its research methods, and presenting results in the field of language learning. The moment has come for it to consider participation in the training of language teachers.

The author looks upon applied linguistics as an intermediary between the general psychological, pedagogical, methodological level of teaching and that of the special didactics of a language. In principle the contribution of the new discipline will be the teaching of everything the language teacher should know and be able to do, apart from what is required of every teacher and from what is specific for the teacher of a particular language.     

The Gap between Theory and Practice

This contribution outlines the state of the art of the recent developments in teacher education for Secondary education in the Netherlands.

In the first section an overall picture is given from the different types of teacher training, their certification and their developments.

In the second section two key‐issues in teacher training are discussed, particularly the different training concepts and the developments in teaching practice in schools. Specific attention is given to the training of the co‐operating teachers.

In the third section two of the author's research projects are reviewed: the first is a project on problems of beginning teachers, and the second a project on teaching practice in schools.     

Teaching strategies to promote concept learning by design challenges

Background: This study is the second study of a design-based research, organised around four studies, that aims to improve student learning, teaching skills and teacher training concerning the design-based learning approach called Learning by Design (LBD).

Purpose: LBD uses the context of design challenges to learn, among other things, science. Previous research shows that this approach to subject integration is quite successful but provides little profit on (scientific) concept learning. For this, a lack of (knowledge of) proper teaching strategies is suggested as an important reason. This study explores these strategies and more specific the interaction with concept learning.

Sample: Six Dutch first-year bachelor’s degree science student teachers, between the ages of 16 and 18, and two science teacher trainers (principal investigators included) were involved.

Design and methods: A mixed methods study was used to study LBD’s teaching practice in depth. Based on a theoretical framework of (concept) learning-related teaching strategies video recordings of a guided LBD challenge were analysed to unravel teacher handling in detail. Complemented by questionnaire and interview data and students’ learning outcomes (pre- and post-exam) the effectiveness of teaching strategies was established and shortcomings were distracted.

Results: Students reached medium overall learning gains where the highest gains were strongly task-related. Teacher handling was dominated by providing feedback and stimulating collaboration and only 13% of all teacher interventions concerned direct explication of underlying science. And especially these explicit teaching strategies were highly appreciated by students to learn about science.

Conclusions: In accordance with insights about knowledge transfer, LBD needs to be enriched with explicit teaching strategies, interludes according to poor-related science content important for cohesive understanding and de- and recontextualisation of concepts for deeper understanding.     

Reframing Teacher Education for Learning Equity

The current models of teacher education in the Western world are still largely based upon the building of students' knowledge and skills using approaches similar to those designed for the assembly lines of the past. The prevailing model of schooling is still centered around the notion that schools are places young people go to watch their teacher work. In the advent of the innovation age, teacher education requires reinvention around the emerging knowledge base about learning and the key role teachers play in addressing issues of equity and student success in this rapidly changing and complex world.

A panel of eminent international scholars, from a range of fields, formulated evidence-based frameworks to guide future teacher education models globally. The frameworks focus on “learning equity.” In addition, the team launched a cloud-based Learning Equity Research and Resource Center, hosting some of the planet's best scholarly and applied research on learning sciences and equity-based practices. The team's research agenda is grounded in learning theory, cognitive science, technology, social justice, and an equity mission to provide learning environments and quality teachers that enable the potential of all children.

The Global Learning Equity Network (GLEN) challenges the preparation of a new kind of teacher for a new kind of school, one built on a learning center rather than a testing center model. GLEN's research, resources, and frameworks are designed to assist new teachers to enable all children to discover their passion(s), grow their talents, and be inspired to lead healthy, happy, and productive lives.     

Place et rôle des stages dans la formation initiale des enseignants en France

Preservice teacher education in France consists of:

subject oriented studies in a university,

recruitment by means of a state competitive examination which may be prepared in a university,

professional training in a training centre, including both subject oriented studies and practice periods in classrooms.

Preschool and primary teacher training includes two years at a university to obtain the required degree for competition and then two years in a college of education. Secondary level teacher training includes more years at a university as the level of competition is high. It takes at least three years to become a graduate, four years in the other case. But the preparation of the competition in itself requires more time for most people. When admitted to the competitive examination, the teacher has one year in a training centre.

This paper will present:

1. the legal basis, curricula, content, structure and aims of practical studies at the two levels (preschool‐primary/secondary levels);

2. the difference and convergence of thinking about practical studies at the two levels: the main principle seems to be that pedagogical and practice studies make up for a lack of theoretical knowledge, but that, consequently, they are not considered really useful for those who do have theoretical knowledge;

3. the difficulties of achieving the official objective concerning an integrated training with links between theoretical studies and practice periods,

4. an innovative approach to this problem by means of a case study which put into practice the hypothesis brought out in the research I have led at the INRP about primary school teacher training.

The organisational models and the place given to practice periods in the whole teacher education raise the problem of what is a professional teacher training and what is its aim.     

La formation des enseignants au Portugal

The author analyses the current situation of teacher education in Portugal. The structure of the education system is described, as is the training of teachers for the compulsory secondary cycle, special education, technical and vocational education and Higher education. The author then goes on to recall the changes which took place during the 70s and the context of discussion and reform of that time.

Changes in the school population have brought about an imbalance between pupil numbers and the availability of properly trained teachers. Untrained teachers have been recruited on a massive scale. Special measures have had to be taken in respect of teacher education, particularly for Secondary level. The article focuses on a recent and innovatory change model originally based on an inservice training model.

Despite current developments, it is the view of the author that a great deal remains to be done.     

Between Tradition and Progress: Oldenburg University's Model Plan for Comprehensive Teacher Training

Since early 1974, a pilot project for integrated teacher training has been in progress at Oldenburg University. This is currently the only extensive teacher training reform which exist in the German Federal Republic.

All plans for this integrated training program are designed to provide training normally encompassed by the traditional two‐stage programm.

The integrated training program includes:

- studies in the areas of education and social science;

- studies in two major subjects which are later to be taught at school;

- practical studies and activities.

The new model leads to the following degrees:

- nine semesters of study for a Certificate of Qualification for primary and lower‐level secondary school;

- eleven semesters for a Certificate of Qualification for higher‐level secon dary school and the education of exceptional children.

Theoretic training in major subject areas and related didactic training as well as education and social studies take place chiefly in the form of projects. A basic assumption is that interdisciplinary projects which are practice‐ and problemoriented permit a highly desirable integration of theory and practice on the whole.

In the project, contact teachers are an essential link between field practice at school and academic training at the university. Contact teachers are under contact to the university for an extended period of time (generally three years). In place of remunation, their teaching loads are reduced by ten hours per week.

In 1978/79 the project will be put to the test as the first generation of students prepares for State Board Examinations.     

The mentor role in individualized education at Empire State College

This paper discusses the role of mentors in individualized learning at Empire State College, New York State. The discussion implicitly questions roles and procedures in distance education.

This individualized learning programme is defined and illustrated. The components of the role of mentor are likewise defined and illustrated. Then the implications of being a mentor working with individual students are spelt out as they illuminate the relationships of mentors in academia.

The conclusion is offered that the mentor's commitment to his/her students is an exhibition of his/her fundamental commitment to a philosophical stance in education which surmounts primary loyalty to one's academic faculty.

The final whimsical question is whether or not individualized learning and distance education are compatible or conflicting.     

Reflections upon Teacher‐training and Postgraduate Training in Romania

The author is categoric in his emphasis upon the key role of teacher education; in both a general philosophical sense and also as official Romanian policy, teacher education is accorded a central place in the development of society.

The theme of the article is in‐service education. (Editor's note: the term used in the text is ‘postgraduate’ training, which we have retained out of deference to the excellence of the writer's English. However, this must be read throughout as ‘in‐service’ and not in the sense of, for example, French CAPES'/Agrégation or UK PGCE.)

The author shows how Romania has developed a thought‐out strategy for INSET, which sees it as a continum from initial training. Thus the process of teacher education becomes an integrated whole, which not only allows the teacher to engage with professional self‐improvement but positively requires that he/she do so. The evolution of this integrated approach has stemmed partly from a need to allow for readjustment of teacher resources in the context of a down‐turn in the demand for teachers and of a need to adapt to new demands, but these factors have been turned to positive advantage; the opportunity has been taken to concentrate upon the quality of the teacher resource.

The system devised allows a progression through clearly‐defined stages, up to Doctoral level. There is a shift in emphasis, away from knowledge acquisition to an understanding of the contribution made by the teacher to the shaping of the human personality. Research methodology is identified as having a major contribution to make to this professional development, as does also an emphasis on evaluation procedures.

Institutionally, the system has come full circle, with responsibility for INSET being vested in the institutions for initial training.

The overall aim is a forward‐looking flexibility, with the teacher education system able to answer the needs of school and society.